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Peacock Humor Pen
Facts for a Rainy Day, Part II A man named Angus McDonald was a lookout man for an explosives company in Johannesburg, South Africa. One April Fool's Day, he decided to pull the ultimate prank. He put on an oversized uniform and hid his head inside. To the casual passerby, it appeared that his head had been blown off. McDonald's joke blew up in his face, however. The story (and photo) was picked up by the newswires and McDonald was fired from his job. Source: Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders by Brad Schreiber, 1989, Simon & Schuster, p. 43-44. Did you ever wonder what the WD in WD-40 stands for?
WD is an abbreviation for Water Displacer.
Back in 1956 recording artist Johnny Mathis was forced
to make the decision between trying out for the United States Olympic team
(his specialty was track) or recording his first album for Columbia Records.
He chose the latter and went on to become the eighth biggest selling album
artist of all time. His 1958 album, Johnny’s Greatest Hits, was the first
Greatest Hits album ever marketed, spending three weeks at #1 and 490 consecutive
weeks on Billboard’s Pop Album chart (that’s almost 9 years!).
The Bank of Vernal, in Vernal, Utah (where else?) is
the only bank in the world that was built from bricks sent through the
mail. Way back in 1919 the builders realized that it was cheaper to send
the bricks through the United States Postal System (seven bricks to a package)
than to have them shipped commercially from Salt Lake City.
Before the invention of anesthesia, speed was a highly
regarded trait in a surgeon. Dr. Robert Liston of London was among the
fastest. But, speed comes with some cost. In one particular operation,
Liston killed three people. The patient actually survived, but later died
of gangrene. During the operation, Liston accidentally cut of the fingers
of his surgical assistant, who soon died from an infection. Liston even
managed to slash through the coattails of a colleague who was observing
the operation - he was so sure that his vital organs had been punctured
that he died of fright!
Way back on August 13, 1903, police entered the Liverpool,
England home of William and Emily Shortis. Worried friends had contacted
the authorities because the couple had not been seen for several days prior.
There they found William near death. Oddly, he was pinned under the
dead body of his 224 pound wife. Did she die during a moment of passion?
Not at all. The coroner concluded that William was following Emily
up the stairs of their home when she lost her balance and tumbled down
the steps, pulling him down with her. Emily immediately died from
Frenchman Michel Lotito has a very unusual diet. Born
on 15, 1950, he has been consuming large quantities of metal and glass
since he was nine years old. To date, he has eaten supermarket carts, television
sets, bicycles, chandeliers, razor blades, bullets, nuts and bolts, lengths
of chain, phonograph records, computers, and an entire Cessna 150 light
aircraft (which took him nearly two years to consume). It seems that his
body has adjusted to this unusual diet, as he eats nearly two pounds of
metal every day. His technique includes lubricating his digestive tract
with mineral oil, cutting the parts into bite-size pieces, and then consuming
a large quantity of water while eating this junk. Most people would
prefer a nice glass of wine with their dinner.
Madame Marie Curie was the first person ever to win
two Nobel Prizes. Her first was in Physics (1903) and the second
in Chemistry (1911). So what did she do with the money? She used part of
the prize to both change the wallpaper and to put a modern bathroom into
her Paris home.
Marijuana was not illegal in the United States until
October 1, 1937, when Congress passed the "Marijuana Tax Act". Total debate
time on the House of Representatives floor concerning this issue: 90 seconds.
This act did not actually ban the substance - it simply said that one could
not sell marijuana without a license. Of course, Congress refused to issue
any licenses. Congress finally banned marijuana outright in 1970.
Everyone knows that spinach is loaded in iron and makes
you stronger - Just look what it has done for Popeye's career. Well,
Popeye was wrong. So were all of those parents that stuffed it down
their kids' throats. In reality, spinach has no more iron in it than any
other vegetable. This spinach misconception dates back to the 1950's when
a food analyst made an error while calculating the iron in spinach. His
decimal place was off by one place, suggesting that spinach had ten times
as much iron content than it really did.
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